


'Til I See Stars In My Eyes

by infinitycats



Category: Star Trek, Star Trek: Alternate Original Series (Movies)
Genre: Bike Gang AU, Heavy Angst, Human AU, M/M, Multi, heavy cursing, minor chulu, modern day AU, spirk
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-04-13
Updated: 2014-04-13
Packaged: 2018-01-19 06:15:12
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,564
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1458973
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/infinitycats/pseuds/infinitycats
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Pike recruits Jim to join Star Fleet, a large organization consisting of gangs of the entire west coast. Jim takes the offer and in a couple of years, becomes the leader of the gang, Enterprise. Jim tours up the entire coast to Canada and meets a Japanese man who changes his life.</p><p>Shit really hits the fan then.</p>
            </blockquote>





	'Til I See Stars In My Eyes

**Author's Note:**

> **A lot of swearing is in this and I probably won't make a clean version of this fic just because all the cursing sets the tone.  
> **Everyone is human, there is no aliens and not everyone is in a biker gang.  
> **Spock appears around chapter 2 or 3, I'll try to keep a schedule to post chapters. :)   
> Remember to bookmark so you can get email updates!!

Jim Tiberius Kirk never did like staying in one place; He always knew Iowa as home, but he never wanted to stay there forever. When he was ten, he went to San Francisco instead of summer school and figured every city that wasn’t Riverside was amazing.

After that, he stared at maps; planned places to go; see, and just dive into. He wanted to see everything, anything. He wanted to escape. But not just out of Iowa. He realized at that young age, the thought of staying in one place, of not exploring what could just be explored on Earth, was what he wanted. And Jim hated being imprisoned.

Jim was an 18 year old on his way to nowhere. He was stuck in Iowa, burning his life away like the packet of cigarettes he occasionally had. School was never a big priority in his life; not that he thought he was too smart, but he never paid too much attention- if he was in school. He liked science and math and all of the subjects, but he never saw anything in them for himself. It didn't matter if he got A’s or maybe scored a 2300 on his SAT’s, he couldn’t ever leave. He had so much anchoring him home and he had already been in the system more than a couple of times.

He never felt right with the idea of settling into a schedule as obscure as it could be with his life. Even if he did get accepted to a college, Jim had no idea what he would study. He wanted his life to be unscheduled; free. And Jim never did repeat his nights. He was never at the same place two nights in a row, never with just the one someone (male or female, he’s not picky) and never seen at a party from start to finish.

Jim is, essentially, an enigma; and not for the reasons any teenager would be. Jim doesn’t like to get close to anyone. Ever since he was old enough to realize in the end, he’ll always get hurt. And he accomplishes his act of alienation, getting up in the morning or right after. Never does guilt sit in his working mind. His life breezes on by and yeah, shit’s good for the most part. Even if a lucky asshole got to leave this damn place before he does.

* * *

 

It’s a cool summer night, rare in Iowa and it’s soft and windy from the rain earlier in the day, just the way Jim loves it. He looks up to the sky on whatever roof of whatever building he can find and pretends he doesn’t know all the stars in the sky by heart, when he does because Winona taught him them.

But Frank’s her fourth husband and he has to fuck up everything in his life.

Frank comes home angry that night, with a bottle of alcohol in his hand. It takes Jim a while to notice. Not that he’s drunk because Frank is always drunk, but Frank’s on his meds and drunk in the kitchen, bottle in one hand and a knife he can barely hold in the other. They yell, argue and Winona is up in bed ignoring everything. Frank shouts, someone moves towards the other and the knife almost finds a home in Jim’s cheek. And then Winona is downstairs, screaming at Jim, only Jim, as if he told her to marry this sack of shit, and then he’s out. He’s angry and he wants to fight so he does.

Jim is a force of fucking nature. Once he gets started, like a hamster on a wheel, he doesn’t stop. It’s a curse that he’s got so much energy to work with because he always finds himself doing the same shit when he can’t control himself.

He fights at the closest bar that doesn't ID, on the outskirts of Riverside. None of the waitresses pay him any mind because it isn’t the first time tall, blonde and horny is here. It’s a three on one fight that ends messy and bloody and causes Jim to almost pass out right there and then. There’s no one to come and pick him up. It doesn’t matter, he thinks, as the pretty waitress helps him into a corner booth with some napkins.

She’s new.

He smiles and she thinks maybe he has a concussion but Frank likes to come to this bar sometimes and the bill is going to go to that asshole. He’s ruined a couple of tables, chairs and a whole shit ton of glasses. He’s done more than 100 dollars in damages and he feels amazing besides the pain that’s killing him.

Christopher Pike isn’t a local and he doesn’t look like it. You’d remember an old handsome face like that; who walks like he’s got better shit to deal with than you. He’s not even supposed to be in Iowa, work doesn’t even bring him this way at all. He does though, only to check up on Jim. He doesn’t care who lives in buttfuck Iowa, but he was a friend of his father before he passed away, in that shootout over overpriced milk when Jim was born. Which ultimately ruined Jim’s life in the long run.

Jim’s father was a deputy which made him a household name with shady characters. And as charismatic and normal as Pike seemed like sometimes, his occupation says otherwise. Jim never knew the story of how they met, nor did he really care for it. All he thought about Pike was that he was only father figure in his life that stuck around. Well, as much a member of a biker gang can really be to a kid.

It didn't help the rebellious youth Jim was and still is. He learned how to pick pockets, learned about motorcycles and cars and how to fuck up someone's property so their insurance wouldn't cover it. Pike would've said he taught the kid good, even though it’s like Jim was his own kid. And his mother, she was barely there anymore, after the first divorce with her second husband. Then she got with her fourth husband, Frank. Which meant the kid was bound to go the wrong way.

Pike should've adopted him, retired from Star Fleet, the organization that controlled his gang and so many, and settled down. Should've gotten him into school, pushed him harder, and helped him with a normal life. Fuck, it was too late now and shit happens. Now Jim was an 18 year old getting into fights he can barely win. Pike let the chance to change both their lives slip by once already, and he wasn't going to do the same twice.

"Not getting tired of these bar fights?" He asks, sitting next to a bleeding Jim. He’s holding a napkin to his nose.

"Nah, there's nothing else to do in Riverside, 'cept get drunk and fight."

Pike gave him a pissed off/concerned look. He didn't care about the drinking and fighting, more about the fact that Jim's stuck here. ‘Cause that’s what Riverside did to Jim. It made him reckless.

"What if I can get you out of here? Do you still remember that talk we had, when Frank first..." Pike lets his voice trail off, his eyes glazing over as he remembers a crying, angry little boy. He'd been gone for a good month and a half, told Jim to behave good. He didn't know Winona was remarrying, should've expected it. Jim was only 6 and he was at the age where he would exaggerate a little here and there. Sam left when he joined the army, told Pike there wasn't much left after his dad died. Sam had always been there for Jim, and his first - and last - selfish decision was to leave home and, inevitably, leave Jim behind too.

It should've sounded an alarm, when the occasional bruising appeared and the flinching when a hand was raised. Jim never put it against him, Pike was the only father figure he'd get because Sam said he'd come back but the only one who ever did was Pike.

Jim never expected him to stay around anyways, but after Pike found out that Jim didn't break his arm by climbing a tree at school, he flew through the squeaky door Jim had always hated, and threatened to run over Frank's skull slowly. Pike took Jim far away, took him to a new city that Jim absolutely adored. It was the first time he had ever left Riverside and what led him to go to California for a summer when he was 10. They went into a hotel after Jim fell asleep in his arms during the motorcycle ride to Des Moines. It was an hour of agony because Pike wouldn’t calm down and didn’t wreck shit since he had a young boy in his care. They went out every day, he spent money on the boy he never spent for himself. Jim remembers it well, he thought it was the best 3 days he’d ever spent with anyone.

It pained Pike when he learned more about the kid, found out he fidgeted during the little hours of sleep he got. He remembers the night that he spent in the same bed as Jim, holding him close until he felt safe enough to pass out in his arms from sheer sleep deprivation. It took Winona three days to notice her son didn’t find out what quiet was, that he was gone and it was Pike’s fault. And when he took him back, Jim cried and cried for him not to go. But Pike had to, he had to leave the little boy behind because work was getting messy and Winona didn’t stop screaming at him. And when Pike left, Jim didn't stop screaming afterwards, and the daily threats and the drinking Jim witnessed never stopped, despite Pike’s threats to Frank.

Jim drank the newly arrived beer slowly, took a second swig before responding. "Yeah, after Winona," Jim stopped calling her mom after Sam walked out and she wouldn't leave Frank, even when he begged her, "After she married, you told me 'One day, I'll take you away from here, offer you what I can'."

"And after I threatened Frank, I told you never again would I let shit slide."

"But you left. For a long time."

Jim sounds sad and Pike nods, but he did leave and for a long time. Jim had felt trapped, and had skipped summer school, with some money Frank left lying around and never thought about again. Went to California and called for Pike to pick him up. When he saw Jim, he was grown up and when he finally came 3 years after Jim’s 13th birthday, Jim wasn't his little guy anymore. He was older, taller and a little more than frisky with everyone, even Pike who laughs it off when he shouldn't. And he prides in being the one who taught him when to be professional, even though the kid already had the jist of it.

Pike leans into him, their arms touching. the scene looked a little strange because people sitting in the bar are staring a little. But they both don't give a fuck if anyone stares and Pike sure as hell doesn't want to fight tonight.

"I know, and I'm leaving for a long time again. this time, I'm taking you."

"I'm not 10 again," Jim huffs, he looks like he's contemplating it and Pike knows that's just a mask. He's playing hard to get and Pike has more patience, that's how he made it in his career.

"There's nothing here for you," he tells Jim softly and Jim shrugs. They both know Riverside isn't offering much and it won't be good for him. Jim sighs, gets up slowly and grabs his coat from the bar counter and motions for Pike to follow him. Pike gets up, gives a stare at the onlookers, daring someone to try something and walks out.

"Do you want to go get anything or-"

"No," Jim tells him. He doesn't want any of the bullshit he has at home, shit that brings bad memories and bad vibes. He's going to get rid of the clothes he has now, never see them again. Frank's always been saying that he won't be surprised if Jim doesn't come back by morning. He has his crappy phone in his pockets and the 100 dollars he got from poker the night before. He can walk out and he's going to. "Do I get to wear leather?" he jokes to Pike, "You know I always wanted to." He begins to laugh and Pike laughs too, because he knows Jim is going to be in a good mood for a long while.

 

* * *

 

Jim doesn't return to Riverside, not when Frank got sick, he didn't bat an eyelash when he was asked to the funeral and didn't give an address when his mom finally got a hold of him and wanted to send him an invitation to her wedding. And Sam? Jim doesn't know to this day about Sam. On the days he rides long enough, he hopes Sam has a wife and a little happy baby in a town no one knows his past.

 

* * *

 

And Jim fucks and doesn't think twice about it. He curses, he wrecks things and does the things a gang member does. So he fucks and doesn't care. He's there and he's here and he's happy. The life on the road makes him happy, it makes Jim proud of himself.

Pike's company consisted of older men; with a lot of experiences and more trust issues than a teenage girl. They didn't trust a 18 year old who just decided that bar fights wasn't his thing anymore. Which was alright with Jim, he didn't trust most people anyway. It was just Pike's trust that he needed. Jim didn't have a reputation at all when he first started.

He's never been in jail for more than a couple of months. It’s the first year and he's been in more bar fights than he can count to. The endless amount of shit Pike's crew has gotten out of because of him earns him the credibility he's always wanted. And he fucks, whoever it is and if they're hot. He doesn't care if it's a boy or a girl, as long as they're not expecting him to stay in the morning and talk about it.

Jim has little friends, he wasn't expecting much to be honest. He's friendly, yeah but he's never around. Sometimes he hates it even though he loves it. It makes the trips worth it when they remember his blue eyes and million dollar smile. It gives him thrills when they remember his motorcycle. A hand me down and he's proud of it, Pike's first.  
He drives where he's not supposed to and goes slower when they yell at him. That one time he went to a real Florida vacation? Raced past all the cars like he had a death sentence, on the highway to Key West, pure water below them.

To Jim, everyone he meets is a chapter in his life. Naturally, Chekov Pavel is a chapter.  
Jim is barely 21 and Chekov is 18 for almost a month when he steps over to Pike’s group in arid Arizona, and asks Jim in particular to take him home for 50 dollars an hour. Chekov doesn’t come cheap and Jim jokes about it when he’s waiting for his tank to fill up. The Russian boy get timid quickly, tells him he needs some money tonight or else his pimp will get mad. His voice is pure desperation.

Jim gets mad, tells him he’ll pay him as if they spent the night together, out of his own pocket no less. Chekov gives him the biggest smile he’s ever seen and it saddens him further that this is probably the first time the teen’s actually smiled in a while.

Jim sees the kid for that night only when they go through Arizona. A week after, he’s at the same gas station filling up his gas tank. They’re about to pull back out to California because they got the money they needed from some sick dickwad who was married to his first cousin. Jim’s alone ‘cause he went riding around more than everyone else. To be on the safe side, he decides to lag behind and fill his bike up. He’s leaning against the gas pump and he hears a whimper from a shadow.

Jim isn’t the type to just sit back and let pain destroy people. He’s running over to where the sound is coming from when it quiets all around him. The little Russian boy is curled up in pain, he’s bruised up and bloody and his clothes are ripped, and Jim’s throat gets dry. He's unable to hear anything, tongue swollen in complete disgust and surprise. His anger coils inside him as he picks the boy up.

“Chekov,” The boy tells him his name when Jim calls for Pike. “It’s Chekov.” That’s his name, ‘Chekov’ and Jim doesn’t forget it. He doesn’t forget it when he rides Chekov all the way to a doctor Pike suggested named McCoy to little town a couple of miles away from the state border.

It's a struggle to keep the boy alive and drive as fast as the bike could go. The little shit almost slides out of control more times Jim would like to remember.

“Shit, fucking shit!” He mutters under his breath, the world turning on its axis quickly as Chekov whimpers. They both almost eat the floor but Jim is a swift young man and gravity doesn't get her way this time. They're up and about, scrambling to get the first steps of the doctor's house.

“Fucking hell, man,” McCoy starts at first and plucks the bloody mess from Jim's arms and into the house. There's quick talking between Doctor McCoy and a plump blonde with eyes the clear blue that reminds Jim of the diamond earrings his mom used to have but pawned them for no reason.

She's a sweet voice of reason, telling Jim to find somewhere to clear his head. “He'll be fine, it'll be fine.” She repeats to him as he dumbly nods. The blonde tells him how to get rid of blood easily, since she's a nurse and all. He's feeling the fuzzy numbness as he drives away.

And when he goes to sleep the first night in California, he doesn't forget Chekov's name or the sounds he made.

Jim doesn’t forget and when he rides out on a personal vendetta back to that middle of nowhere gas pump later; seeing Chekov back to business and talking to a guy in a car, gets him angry.

Shit, Chekov is still there working for that asshole.

So he scares the fucker in the expensive car and Chekov is extremely grateful. He talks at a million miles per hour in gratitude, telling him that he feels better and not to worry and that he shouldn’t have come back. Jim can tell the kid is lying through his teeth, sees the fidgeting and the jumping at sounds, that brings a shit load of bad memories back to Jim himself.

“Don’t you want to leave here?” Jim asks him as they drive out of the gas station. Chekov mumbles yes, as they go and get a late as hell breakfast.

“Yes,” he says slowly after they order. “Yes, I want to leave but I almost did and that’s why you found me like that, on the floor. I almost died if it wasn’t for you, I’m… Grateful.” Chekov whispers and doesn’t say much after that, or when they eat, or when they are about to ride back to his usual spot.

“Fuck,” Jim mutters to himself as he sees Chekov casually asking for a cigarette from a strange guy who’s sizing him up.

“Chekov,” he begins when the boy comes around, “I’ll offer you something. Either I leave you here at the gas station or I take you to California, give you security, a place, maybe a home and we never come back here again. And whoever the hell is your pimp, he won't be any longer.”

“He’ll come after me, Jim.” Chekov sounds small, and he stares at his burning cigarette before saying; “I want to leave but he’ll come back and he’ll kill me for sure and I can’t-”

But Jim tells him to shut up and get on the fucking bike and Chekov does and he likes California. A lot. And he likes the other gang members in Star Fleet and Jim’s crew and he trusts Jim just as much as a he likes California. When he’s just about fitting in and it’s been a month and he sees that white car which makes his anxiety fly out the window, he almost passes out.

 

* * *

 

Jim’s never killed anyone.

Until Chekov.

Maybe he’s knocked them out or given them a concussion, but never fully fucked them up so bad they die. He always thought the guilt of killing someone would kill him.

No, he decides when Chekov is crying in front of him and choking on tears, shaking like a damn earthquake and babbling. No, he won’t die from the guilt of killing someone who rapes and leaves an innocent person out to die because he wanted to leave their grasp.

It's a fucking bitch to find the guy. In the end, Jim doesn't find the low life scum 'cause he scrammed when he saw a bunch of bikers coming into Chekov's life. Instead, he finds the guy who inflicted all the pain on Chekov and for the moment, it keeps him satisfied because he's sending a message.

No one comes looking for either of them.

Chekov Pavel is an interesting soul. He likes American food, soul music and harbors an intense love for peanut butter and alcohol.  
On a cool whiskey type of night, Chekov gets kind of talkative. Maybe it’s the alcohol, Jim thinks as Chekov plastered on the floor. He talks and talks and doesn’t even realize what he is saying. His voice slips in and out of English and into Russian. When he finally gets quiet, he decides on a story and it doesn't take Jim long to hear the one he's been waiting for.

“I was 17,” Chekov starts very softly. He was babbling about physics earlier or something, Jim began to zone him out once he heard him switching between English and Russian. Now he's quiet down and Jim refocuses on him. At the moment, they are alone out on the balcony, in a ‘out-of-the-way’ medium sized household where Pike's gang, Enterprise, cool down at. “In college, I was... Very young, yes and my roommate, he was smart. Too smart for his own good. Lenivii.” He begins to repeat the words again and again. Then he starts up again in Russian.

“Chekov,” Jim begins softly. “English.”

Chekov looks confused, like he doesn't know what English even means. He fixes himself on the floor and looks up at the sky with the faint little twinkles of the stars and satellites above them. His voice starts again in English, low and seductive, the casual slurs that come with being drunk appear.

He got caught in the middle of drug dealing because of his roommate, throwing only him in jail and got him kicked out of college when he just 17. He loses the opportunity of a lifetime and his family disowns him and doesn’t even get deported because the sick son of a bitch who was his pimp got him to stay. Jim finds out he was going to be an engineer and he knows how to do math in his head quicker than him or anyone he knows for that matter. Chekov tells Jim all about the things he was going to do and Jim is the only one who can follow his conversations about them.

 

* * *

 

Until Sulu.

Shit kinda happens before him though. Pike gets promoted and goes to work in San Fran with some real important guys that organize Star Fleet, couple of the guys split afterwards. Not like it was a big gang in the first place. Some went with Pike, others heading to other states for a bit of scenery with new gangs. So now, it’s just him and Chekov left. Which leaves Jim to head and find recruitment.

Sulu is another chapter in both Chekov’s and Jim’s life. Hikaru Sulu only likes to be called Sulu and nothing else. He’s a quiet Asian man who fights a lot more than he’s ever talked and has a relationship with his family that’s a little strange. He’s a gangster in their eyes but they accept him because he’s never brought problems their way, only money when they need it, and it’s only sometimes because they could never accept blood money. Sulu doesn’t care what they call the money, so as long as they take it because Sulu cares about them more than he has ever cared for himself.

Chekov meets him first by chance actually. California was getting hot and Chekov was wearing a short white shirt and tight jeans; reading an article about physics under the porch on Jim’s iPhone when their eyes meet. Sulu’s looking for Jim and Chekov wasn’t looking for anyone.

The young boy smiles lazily, eating Sulu up with his eyes and crawls up from his seat. Slowly he takes Sulu up the little stairs, to the porch and inside. They pass the clutter that Chekov refuses to clean until he’s bored and walk through the hallways straight to Jim, who is confused about Sulu’s dour demeanor.

Chekov lingers for a moment, hips out and head leaning on the wall behind him. He smiles brightly at them both and takes his leave with the thinnest space between him and Sulu. The slightest touch between them.

Jim swears Sulu lost his breath in the moment

And that’s how Chekov unknowingly recruited Sulu, which made Jim all the happier. The man took his job seriously and Jim needed a bit of serious in his life, surprisingly.

It takes them a month but it’s actually Jim who cracks Sulu. They laze around the safe house or as Chekov likes to think of it; home. He’s a young spirited boy who tends to write on anything he can and write little equations here and there. He says it keeps him busy so Chekov writes everywhere and talks to Jim and Jim tries to use Chekov to his advantage because hell, both of them are interested in the shadowed figure that is Sulu.

Sulu doesn’t talk much. He’s only ever said yes, no, and thank you but besides that, it’s a grunt. Chekov says he can see much more just by gazing into Sulu’s eyes.  
Jim thinks that is utter shit to himself, ‘cause he doesn’t have the heart to say it out loud.

So Sulu half-listens to their endless conversations on equations Chekov knows better than Jim. Chekov spews out something about gravity and Sulu talks.

Turns out Sulu likes to fly and he knows some math as far as that goes. Jim talks planes, the little he knows about them but Sulu teaches them. He brings it up here and there and the teen boy offers some alcohol and that cracks the man up even wider. Chekov was right; the little shit he was, on the fact that, yes. Sulu does have a million dollar smile. He confides in them both that he finds the comfort in the safe house and comfort in them both. And they figure that he hates talking about family.

Jim and Chekov agree. No talks about family.

 

* * *

 

Until McCoy.

Doctor Leonard McCoy was the doctor who treated Chekov and ultimately, the sunshine of Chekov’s life. Because the boy with the thick accent and bad past sees the good in people and although McCoy is a hardboiled egg, if you will, Jim sees it too.

So when they pass by that little town, it’s only Chekov who says to Jim quietly that he wants to say thank you to the doctor. They do and make the little trip to the doctor’s home where he practices.

“No need to say thank you,” he says to them in his gruff voice, getting them something to drink. He fixes them something up quickly ‘cause he’s got no patients at the moment and allows them to sit at his table.

McCoy is in the kitchen and Jim joins him, with the low murmurs of the conversation between Sulu and Chekov echo into the house.

“Your kid?” Jim asks gently, looking at the picture of a bubbly, beaming little girl. Joanna is written at the bottom of the picture. “She’s cute.”  
McCoy nods, taking a good swig of something that’s probably alcoholic. Jim doesn’t comment since he isn’t one to talk.

“Yeah,” McCoy starts. “She used to live with me with her mom but apparently, I-“ He points at himself with an angry frown, “wasn’t good enough. She took her and everything else and I kept the damn house only ‘cause I practice here.”

Jim’s about to say sorry or something that fucking crappy along the way before he hears the man mutter about bones. So Jim instead laughs and seems like a bigger asshole than those blue eyes and blonde hair make him seem.

McCoy makes a face at him and asks him what he’s laughing at but Jim shakes his head and asks, “Bones, would you like to join a gang?”

At first, Bones laughs. He laughs and laughs and takes a bit more swigs of the apparently great drink in his hand and laughs a little harder. Then composes himself, tell Jim he’s only a doctor which causes the blonde to shrug and say, “I used to be a farm boy and your ex-wife took your kid and all you got left is your house and your bones.”

And Bones grunts and Jim takes that as a yes and Bones somehow gets stuck commuting to and fro the safe house until he gets so fucking sick of the shit, sells his house and takes his practices to better and more exciting use. Like, having almost Sulu die on him that one time someone pulled a gun out on them and it turns out that he had the wrong guy because “all Asians look alike”.

Bones ripped him a new one.

 

* * *

 

And that's how it is. It started with two, then three and four. It expanded and went. The cute little blonde Bones worked with and Chekov and Jim fondly remember, joins them. After, it doesn't take long when he has a nice set of people he can rely on and he's got a roster of people. He feels good about this and sends the list to Pike who gives him the okay from headquarters ‘cause shit, they're an organization more or less for the benefits and those legal issues.

It's a Wednesday and Chekov can't sleep and he's got the bad habit of sleeping with other people. Sulu doesn't mind when Chekov sleeps on him as long as he's awake since he also got bad habit of waking up like he got assassins on the prowl for him every time someone is near him. Something about reflects or another, no one is sure because Sulu tends to mumble. So, Chekov slithers around and ends up wedge between Bones and where Jim would be if he was lying in bed 'cause there's not enough space for everyone to take one bed. Jim's at a desk that currently belongs to no one but he's sort of adopted it.

“Jim,” Chekov calls out very calmly and very sleepy. “Jim, come to bed.”

Jim smiles to himself, looking at a map. He's trying to figure out where to go, what to see, and who to take. With a pencil in his hand, he begins to mark the towns he likes, places pin to represent landmarks and little notes along the way. He likes to explore what he's never before, but he wants to make sure he's not heading anywhere he doesn't want to be. He takes a moment and realizes they'll be heading into Canada, which is fine with him. Canada's beautiful during the autumn, anyways.

With his rough hands, he puts everything in an orderly fashion. He figures it'll be the last time anything in his life will be so nicely put together. Jim gives it one good and final look before deciding that this is it. He's got the schematics in his head as he takes off his sweaty shirt and replaces it with one of Bones' wife beaters. Chekov scoots close to Bones, obviously not afraid to make contact with people, to make space for Jim. In the big bed, they fit comfortably. In the morning, Jim knows Chekov will awake with his leg over one of them and his faced cuddled towards Bones, like always. He smiles in the dark as he feels the younger boy go limp and his breathing gets deep and rhythmic.


End file.
